VR Terminology Primer

Written by Keram Malicki-Sanchez. Except where otherwise noted. This is a work-in-progress.

VR Terms

6DoF – “6 Degrees of Freedom” – VR systems that use positional trackers to negotiate a user’s position on the x,y,z axis. Examples include the HTC Vive with its infrared “lighthouses” and the Oculus Rift that uses cameras to measure “depth.”

GVS – galvanic vestibular stimulation – a method dating back 100 years to induce a sense of motion by applying electrical stimulus to the areas just below and behind the ears that both connect muscles from the neck and also help to regulate one’s sense of balance and orientation

HMD – head-mounted display – aka, VR goggles

NED – Near-eye display

Roomscale VR – A system that allows a user to move about a virtual space by employing a physical tracking system. This permits for realistic parallax effects and literal or implied spatially advanced interoperability within the virtual system. (see 6DoF)

Spherical Video – a rendered video file that plays back in a 360-degree format. The video is “projected” onto a three-dimensional virtual sphere, and then the playback device uses acceleratorometer and gyroscopes to track the position of the user’s gaze to create a sense of persistence and immersion.

Tethered – VR systems that have a wired connection to a computer

Untethered, wireless – self-contained VR display and playback systems

Spatialized Photography

Depthkit – DepthKit is a suite of tools that allows anyone to capture, edit, and publish volumetric experiences.

Photogrammetry – Photogrammetry is the science of making measurements from photographs. The output of photogrammetry is typically a map, drawing, measurement, or a 3D model of some real-world object or scene. (source)